How did you land a track for Shanghai?
I ran into Dibakar Banerjee, the director of Shanghai, after 15 years in a cafe in Mumbai and he offered it to me literally there and then! It was recorded at a day’s notice.
Why not start off your singing career with a south Indian film instead?
I don’t see it as a career, more as a passion. I won’t do it commercially, but selectively, like only when I want to sing the right song.
Your track, Mantra: Vishnu Sahasranamam, is a traditional, religious chant. How does it fit into Shanghai?
I haven’t seen the movie yet, so I can’t say.
Do you have you any more Bollywood offers in the bag?
I have auditioned with India’s most respected global music composer for a major Bollywood production. Let us see what destiny has in store for me.
Tell us about your training as a vocalist.
I believe it is a gift of God, a talent I was born with. Now I regret that I didn’t learn music formally when I was a child.
Where do you find the time for riyaaz?
It is the hardest thing to find discipline, not time, to do regular riyaaz. I do about two hours a day of Hindustani and have started Carnatic.
Never thought of music as a career option?
As a middle-class TamBram, the emphasis was always on a sound education and enduring values. So those, and the IAS, dominated everything else.
Is there a music album in the pipeline?
It was one of my father’s last two wishes. Someday....
Any musicians you admire?
Mehdi Hassan, A.R. Rahman, Rashid Khan, Ajoy Chakrabarty, T.M. Krishna, Sting, Dylan.
You’re the ‘babu’ who sings—how did your colleagues react to your forays into Bollywood?
Very happily!
